Abstract: Boreal forest soils store a major fraction of the global terrestrial carbon. However, fires are pervasive disturbances that may critically trigger the carbon loss from these forest soils and in turn, influence the soil microbial communities with important outcomes over carbon dynamics of northern ecosystems. In this talk, I will present some of the results from my postdoc project in which we have studied the fire impacts on fungal communities, fungal transformations of organic matter and soil nutrients on an ecological gradient in fire severity. The study is part of a larger collaborative venture to investigate ecosystem recovery after the Västmanland fire in 2014, the largest Swedish forest fire in modern times. We sampled plots stablished in burned (differing in fire severity damage) and un-burned areas. Subplots subjected to logging and non-logging treatments were in turn established in each burned plot. As expected, the fire greatly affected the fungal community, which further consequences on the enzymatic activities related to carbon and nitrogen cycling. Two different fire severity gradients governed these processes: one belowground according to the lost of Carbon and one aboveground according to the death of trees. Gaining knowledge about post-fire ecosystem processes and fungal dynamics will contribute to a better understanding of fire ecology and succession of Boreal forests. Moreover, I will compared briefly these results with those from my PhD where I studied the effect of fire recurrence on fungal communities in fire-prone Mediterranean ecosystems.
Read more about the research here